Secret to Overcoming #2- Return to your First Love
Yesterday, we ended Secrets to Overcoming Part 1, by stirring up a discussion about what it means to return to your First Love. If you haven't had a chance to read the comments, you should click here.
I told Holly each comment yesterday was incredibly precious to me. As I kept reading I realized returning to make God our first love is a deeply personal experience. As is Secret to Overcoming #3.
Secret to Overcoming #3- Send your praises of God ahead to fight for you.
2 Chronicles 20: 22, "Now when they (Judah- God's people) began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated."
For 15 years I have been the rag tag leader of Proverbs 31 Ministries. What started out as a very small group of volunteers sending out a very modest little newsletter has grown beyond what I would have ever dared to dream it could.
In our early days we used to meet weekly at the McDonald's playground where I'd often quip, one day we're going to have a real office with a telephone and copy machine. Because everyone knows things become real official when there's a telephone and a copy machine involved.
In the meantime, we did the best with what we had. Part of that meant never letting our dreams run ahead of God's confirmations. We don't start a new area of the ministry until God provides both the person and their salary. And we don't buy things for which we don't have the money.
That's why you'll find my amazing team working in a very modest rented office full of donated furniture that they've somehow managed to make look beautiful. And we've somehow managed to outgrow.
So, our team started praying last year for a place to call our own. A place we could buy. I smiled and said, "Of course you can pray. I will pray too." But I'll admit in the back of my mind I thought it was a pipe dream. Pure craziness.
We are in an economy where many, many businesses and ministries are scaling back, laying off, and downsizing. We are funded by the donations of people who are now being forced themselves to scale back and downsize. I just couldn't see it. At all.
But my team was neither deterred or discouraged. They pressed on and developed a plan to raise the money slowly over this next year with several campaigns. The first of which was a year end campaign to ask anyone and everyone who'd ever been touched by the ministry to invest. They sent out a simple letter with a simple request.
Will you help us build a place for our ministry to call home? Send in $10 and you'll be buying a doorknob. Send in $100 and you'll be buying a door.
The vision was cast and sweet women from all across the world sacrificially gave.
My team who makes pennies on the dollar compared to what they'd get paid in a secular job sacrificially gave. We raised about 1/5 of what we needed for a down payment that would allow us to keep our mortgage payments the same as our current monthly rent.
It was incredible. It was a great start. We celebrated and thanked God for every penny of the $33,000 He'd sent.
Then two Sunday's ago, I was reading the story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles. I was so stirred by God directing him to do something bold and completely out of the ordinary. Send a choir of people singing praises as the first line in battle.
I sat moved to tears. Could I be so bold? Instead of scurrying around and trying to figure out the next fundraising campaigns. Instead of strategically planning out this daunting task on my own- could I dare to let God work it out for us?
Immediately, I sent my team an e-mail asking them to pray for Proverbs 31 Ministries and specifically listed the building fund. Then for a week, I sent my prayers and praises ahead of me in this adventure- this dream- this battle if you will.
Last Sunday I felt prompted to resend the same e-mail to my team with the exact same requests. We all sent our prayers and praises ahead of us.
One day later a couple who lives thousands of miles from our office, sat down to look through their mail. They found our simple letter and prayed about what they should give.
Two days later they called our office and committed $100,000.
We still have more to raise but this gets us closer than I ever thought possible at this point.
I can't even sit here and type this without tears welling up in my eyes.
We can't explain this. And please understand we are the first to admit, we don't deserve this. It is God's pure and unfathomable grace being poured out. But one thing I can assure you- this isn't about the money. It is about experiencing God. That is the blessing here.
That is the blessing tucked inside each struggle we face. It is an opportunity to have God participate in helping us with that which we can't help ourselves. It is a personal experience of why HE alone is worthy of our praises. Praises not for what we hope He'll do but rather praises for how worthy He is of our trust.
I don't know what you are facing today. Maybe it's weight loss. Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's your finances. I don't personally know your struggle. But I do know sending your pure praises of God ahead to fight for you is a secret to overcoming.
I'll be speaking about some of this in person at a couple of events coming up. I'd love to see you and yes, this non-huggy girl will even hug you. I make special exceptions for my bloggy friends! Here I come Tennessee. And here I come Kansas City.
And finally- the winners of my audio book for "Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl on CD" are:
Angel77
Carolynn W
Shauna Okongo
Please e-mail Holly@Proverbs31.org to claim your prize~ Happy Weekend!
Yesterday, we ended Secrets to Overcoming Part 1, by stirring up a discussion about what it means to return to your First Love. If you haven't had a chance to read the comments, you should click here.
I told Holly each comment yesterday was incredibly precious to me. As I kept reading I realized returning to make God our first love is a deeply personal experience. As is Secret to Overcoming #3.
Secret to Overcoming #3- Send your praises of God ahead to fight for you.
2 Chronicles 20: 22, "Now when they (Judah- God's people) began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated."
For 15 years I have been the rag tag leader of Proverbs 31 Ministries. What started out as a very small group of volunteers sending out a very modest little newsletter has grown beyond what I would have ever dared to dream it could.
In our early days we used to meet weekly at the McDonald's playground where I'd often quip, one day we're going to have a real office with a telephone and copy machine. Because everyone knows things become real official when there's a telephone and a copy machine involved.
In the meantime, we did the best with what we had. Part of that meant never letting our dreams run ahead of God's confirmations. We don't start a new area of the ministry until God provides both the person and their salary. And we don't buy things for which we don't have the money.
That's why you'll find my amazing team working in a very modest rented office full of donated furniture that they've somehow managed to make look beautiful. And we've somehow managed to outgrow.
So, our team started praying last year for a place to call our own. A place we could buy. I smiled and said, "Of course you can pray. I will pray too." But I'll admit in the back of my mind I thought it was a pipe dream. Pure craziness.
We are in an economy where many, many businesses and ministries are scaling back, laying off, and downsizing. We are funded by the donations of people who are now being forced themselves to scale back and downsize. I just couldn't see it. At all.
But my team was neither deterred or discouraged. They pressed on and developed a plan to raise the money slowly over this next year with several campaigns. The first of which was a year end campaign to ask anyone and everyone who'd ever been touched by the ministry to invest. They sent out a simple letter with a simple request.
Will you help us build a place for our ministry to call home? Send in $10 and you'll be buying a doorknob. Send in $100 and you'll be buying a door.
The vision was cast and sweet women from all across the world sacrificially gave.
My team who makes pennies on the dollar compared to what they'd get paid in a secular job sacrificially gave. We raised about 1/5 of what we needed for a down payment that would allow us to keep our mortgage payments the same as our current monthly rent.
It was incredible. It was a great start. We celebrated and thanked God for every penny of the $33,000 He'd sent.
Then two Sunday's ago, I was reading the story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles. I was so stirred by God directing him to do something bold and completely out of the ordinary. Send a choir of people singing praises as the first line in battle.
I sat moved to tears. Could I be so bold? Instead of scurrying around and trying to figure out the next fundraising campaigns. Instead of strategically planning out this daunting task on my own- could I dare to let God work it out for us?
Immediately, I sent my team an e-mail asking them to pray for Proverbs 31 Ministries and specifically listed the building fund. Then for a week, I sent my prayers and praises ahead of me in this adventure- this dream- this battle if you will.
Last Sunday I felt prompted to resend the same e-mail to my team with the exact same requests. We all sent our prayers and praises ahead of us.
One day later a couple who lives thousands of miles from our office, sat down to look through their mail. They found our simple letter and prayed about what they should give.
Two days later they called our office and committed $100,000.
We still have more to raise but this gets us closer than I ever thought possible at this point.
I can't even sit here and type this without tears welling up in my eyes.
We can't explain this. And please understand we are the first to admit, we don't deserve this. It is God's pure and unfathomable grace being poured out. But one thing I can assure you- this isn't about the money. It is about experiencing God. That is the blessing here.
That is the blessing tucked inside each struggle we face. It is an opportunity to have God participate in helping us with that which we can't help ourselves. It is a personal experience of why HE alone is worthy of our praises. Praises not for what we hope He'll do but rather praises for how worthy He is of our trust.
I don't know what you are facing today. Maybe it's weight loss. Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's your finances. I don't personally know your struggle. But I do know sending your pure praises of God ahead to fight for you is a secret to overcoming.
I'll be speaking about some of this in person at a couple of events coming up. I'd love to see you and yes, this non-huggy girl will even hug you. I make special exceptions for my bloggy friends! Here I come Tennessee. And here I come Kansas City.
And finally- the winners of my audio book for "Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl on CD" are:
Angel77
Carolynn W
Shauna Okongo
Please e-mail Holly@Proverbs31.org to claim your prize~ Happy Weekend!
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